Beijing 2008

[DRT]

Is anyone watching the Olympics?

I love watching this event every four years and become totally engrossed in sports that I would never watch at any other time. The opening ceremony was spectacular. I hope Uncle Tom managed to see the pyro stuff - WOW!!

[jdaw1]

Olympics—pah! No tiddlywink†: not a real sporting extravaganza.

† And no other sport is so intimately connected to vintage port.

[DRT]

Olympics—pah! No tiddlywink†: not a real sporting extravaganza.

† And no other sport is so intimately connected to vintage port.

I am willing to support your bid to have it included for the London 2012 games.

[RonnieRoots]

We just moved houses and I didn't think that it would be possible to have a satellite connection in time to watch the Olympics. Everything takes ages to arrange here... The first problem is that you have to find someone who will sell it to you. A shop? Noooo, far too easy. You have to know someone, who knows someone who can do the job for you. If he happens to have the right tools and material in stock. And for the first time since we are here we actually did know somebody, who knew somebody! And he did have the tools and material! And only a couple of hours after my initial call, we had satellite tv!

A minor problem is that I was under the impression that our expensive super mega package had at least 4 or 5 sport channels, but there's just one: NBA TV. And then there are the two sport channels of Al Jazeera but they are stubbornly broadcasting old English competition football matches. So I'm dependent on public broadcasting from Dubai (sometimes in English - good!) and a couple of others with Arabic commentary. But at least I'm able to watch. Saw quite a bit of the swimming, and LadyR and I always enjoy watching the gymnastics. I missed the men's cycling road race on tv, but listened to Dutch radio instead. That also worked. I'm looking forward to the indoor cycling (medal chances for Theo Bos!) and athletics.

Watching weightlifting is always fun because it's so silly, Arabic commentary only adds to that.

[jdaw1]

Somebody should mention that we’re up for bronze. The BBC medals table shows the winners being — surprise! — non-Taipei China (they do have the most people); second being USA (having most money, albeit by a smaller margin than previously); and third place, with sixteen golds, the UK (perhaps because we have the most old vintage port). There’s a moral in this, and Olympians in Training are on task.

[jdaw1]

Which suggests The Port Forum Olympics, for which I have a first draft of a handy logo.


(If anybody is sad enough to want to use this as an avatar, they are welcome to do so.)

[DRT]

I like the idea of The Port Forum Olympics. Which sports would be included?

[jdaw1]

I like the idea of The Port Forum Olympics. Which sports would be included?

Vintage Port drinking. Tawny Port drinking. Beer Drinking. Triathlon.

[benread]

I like the idea of The Port Forum Olympics. Which sports would be included?

Vintage Port drinking. Tawny Port drinking. Beer Drinking. Triathlon.

A few early contenders based on last nights form then!

[RonnieRoots]

and third place, with sixteen golds, the UK

7 of which are won with indoor track cycling. Obviously Britain's most popular sport.

Suggestions for TPF Olympic Sports:
- Bottle Decapitation (with points awarded for speed, accuracy, technique and flair)
- Speed Drinking (1, 3, and 5 bottles - penalties given for falling asleep in between sessions)
- Blind Tasting
- Speed Decanting

[jdaw1]

Speed drinking medley relay.

[RonnieRoots]

Tawny Rapid Relay

[jdaw1]

Thirteen-bottle marathon (with a maximum time of four days).

[RonnieRoots]

Cork reconstructing

[benread]

How about 100ml and 200ml sprint with 375ml and 750ml middle distance "races"?

[jdaw1]

Heptathlon — a bottle of VP from each of the last seven non-pedant decades (currently 200? to 194?).

[DRT]

We could also include some Extreme Sports such as:

Cruz Ruby Drinking
Sediment Eating
Lagar Diving

[Glenn E.]

Somebody should mention that we’re up for bronze. The BBC medals table shows the winners being — surprise! — non-Taipei China (they do have the most people); second being USA (having most money, albeit by a smaller margin than previously); and third place, with sixteen golds, the UK (perhaps because we have the most old vintage port). There’s a moral in this, and Olympians in Training are on task.

Ironic that you'd say you're up for bronze, yet then produce a medal tally ordered in a manner that doesn't count silver or bronze medals.

The medal counts over here all show the U.S.A. leading with (currently) 95 medals, followed by China with 83, then Russia with 51 and Great Britain with 40.

[jdaw1]

The host nation has a gold fetish, and I was — perhaps unwisely — following Chinese standards.
But at the the UK would win hands-down, with USA, Netherlands and Germany scrapping for the other two slots.

[DRT]

Sport is about winning. Gold medals are for winners. Silver and Bronze are for losers. Any counting system which allocates equal points for a gold and a silver or bronze is surely fundamentally flawed?

[Glenn E.]

Ah but the Olympics claim to have a different standard. Simply representing your country at the Olympics is supposed to be the ultimate goal. The medals are secondary.

Of course, the modern media won't stand for that, so we end up with this emphasis on medals and who is winning.

[DRT]

In my 43 years I have probably watched at least 9 Olympics and can't remember one where the medal table wasn't displayed with some emphasis on a daily basis. There has always been an emphasis on it being a team effort, as demonstrated by the parade in the opening ceremony and the hysteria surrounding USAvUSSR rivalry during the Cold War years.

I would suggest that a fair scoring system would be 4 points for gold, 2 for silver and 1 for bronze. Someone else can do the maths.

Derek

[Andy Velebil]

Hey don't forget about those East German women...or what ever they were

[DRT]

And so it comes to an end. The Chinese hosts put on yet another monumental display of artistic and organisational excellence and splendour while the Brits give us a flavour of what is to come in 2012: Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) in an ill-fitting suit with his hands in his pockets and a stupid grin on his face and 8 minutes of the most tortuously embarassing excuse for a display of Britishness with a 100 year old rock star, an X-Factor winner and a past-it Footie player at centre stage.

I'm sure the Beijing Artistic Director is quaking in his boots

[benread]

But to all our non-UK port drinking friends, welcome to the new Olympic host country and City.